Joshua Andrew Koenig (; August 17, 1968 – February 16, 2010) was an American character actor, film director, editor, writer, and human rights activist. He was known for his role as Richard "Boner" Stabone in ''

Growing Pains ''Growing Pains'' is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven seasons, consisting of 166 episodes. The series followed the misadventures of the ...

''.

Early life

Andrew Koenig was born August 17, 1968, the son of '' Star Trek'' actor

Walter Koenig Walter Marvin Koenig (; born September 14, 1936) is an American actor and screenwriter. He began acting professionally in the mid 1960s and quickly rose to prominence for his supporting role as Ensign Pavel Chekov in ''Star Trek: The Original S ...

and Judy Levitt. Writer Harlan Ellison spoke of the young Koenig – by his given first name of Josh – as being the inspiration for his story "

Jeffty Is Five "Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American author Harlan Ellison. It was first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' in 1977, then was included in DAW's '' The 1978 Annual World's Best SF'' in 1978 and Ellison's s ...

". The story went on to win the 1977 Nebula Award and the 1978

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction o ...

Career

From 1985 to 1989, Koenig played a recurring role as Richard "Boner" Stabone, best friend to

Kirk Cameron Kirk Thomas Cameron (born October 12, 1970) is an American actor and evangelist. He first gained fame as a teen actor playing Mike Seaver on the ABC sitcom ''Growing Pains'' (1985–1992), a role for which he was nominated for two Golden Gl ...

's character Mike Seaver in the first four seasons of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

sitcom ''

''. During the same period, he guest starred on episodes of the sitcoms ''

My Sister Sam ''My Sister Sam'' is an American television sitcom starring Pam Dawber and Rebecca Schaeffer that aired on CBS from October 6, 1986, to April 12, 1988. Synopsis The sitcom follows the lives of a 29-year-old San Francisco freelance photographer ...

'' and ''

My Two Dads ''My Two Dads'' is an American sitcom television series that was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions in association with Tri-Star Television (later Columbia Pictures Television) and distributed by TeleVentures. It starred Paul Reiser, Greg ...

'' as well as the drama ''

21 Jump Street ''21 Jump Street'' is an American police procedural television series that aired on the Fox network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focuses on a squad of youthful-loo ...

''. In the early 1990s he provided a voice for the animated series ''

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...

'' as

Ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind mo ...

and Night Creeper Leader, and had a minor role as Tumak in the 1993 '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' episode "

Sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

". Koenig played the role of

The Joker The Joker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, and first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book '' Batman'' on April 25, 1 ...

in the 2003

fan film A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book, book, or video game created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the mo ...

'' Batman: Dead End''. Onstage, he played the Page Boy in the eight performances of Verdi's ''Falstaff'', a production of the

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the ...

conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini at the

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center, which is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt ...

in Los Angeles, California, in April 1982. As an adult, he starred as the M.C. in the 2007

interactive theater Interactive theatre is a presentational or theatrical form or work that breaks the "fourth wall" that traditionally separates the performer from the audience both physically and verbally. In traditional theatre, performance is limited to a design ...

play ''The Boomerang Kid'' and performed with the improv group Charles Whitman Reilly and Friends. Though he continued his performing career in the 2006 independent film ''The Theory of Everything'' (2006), Koenig worked increasingly behind the scenes. He wrote, produced and/or directed the shorts ''Good Boy'' (2003) and ''Woman in a Green Dress'' and ''Instinct vs. Reason'' (2004). He worked as an editor on a number of films and was a video producer for the podcast ''

Never Not Funny ''Never Not Funny'' is a podcast hosted by American comedian Jimmy Pardo, since spring 2006, currently releasing two episodes a week. He and producer/co-host Matt Belknap have appeared in every episode. Comedian Mike Schmidt appeared as co-host f ...

'' (2006–2010). His final role was in the film ''DaZe: Vol. Too — NonSeNse'', in post-production at the time of his death, with Koenig portraying the role of Vice Chancellor.

Personal life

Koenig was an important part of the nonviolent direct action community in

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

that focused on environmental protection during the 1990s. Koenig, a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

, traveled to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

in July 2007 and visited Burmese refugee camps in Thailand with his father as part of the

U.S. Campaign for Burma {{Democracy movements in Burma The United States Campaign for Burma (USCB) is a U.S.-based membership organization that evolved out of the Free Burma Coalition founded by Maung Zarni. Founders were Jack Healey, who provided fiscal sponsorship to ...

. The following January, he protested the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

's political and financial support of the military dictatorship in Burma during the 119th

Tournament of Roses The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Mon ...

in Pasadena, California; after a pre-parade human rights march agreed to by parade officials was allegedly stifled by them, he entered the parade and stood in front of a Chinese float promoting the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Koenig, who carried a sign reading "China: Free Burma" in both English and Chinese, was arrested and briefly held for his act of civil disobedience. Koenig's defense attorney was Bill Paparian, a fellow protester and former mayor of Pasadena. "China sits on the UN Security Council and they have refused to condemn Burma. China purchases gas from Burma and sells them weapons that the military uses on the Burmese people. So they are really quite complicit, and that was the whole point of protesting the China float," Koenig explained. Koenig also noted the Chinese government's implicit support of the

genocide in Sudan The Darfur genocide is the systematic killing of ethnic Darfuri people which has occurred during the ongoing conflict in Western Sudan. It has become known as the first genocide of the 21st century. The genocide, which is being carried out aga ...

sweatshop A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...

s and tainted export products, saying of the float, "China is putting on a good face because of the Olympics, but t's time tosend a message to the Chinese government that they have to not just change their face, but change the way they do things." ''The Pasadena Weekly'' quoted Koenig as stating, "Their free speech rights have been totally censored. As a country with a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, we need to continue to support and enforce ours, and se it torecognize the rights of human beings all over the world".

Death

Koenig was last seen in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

, on February 14, 2010, and missed a scheduled flight on February 16, which was the last day he used his cell phone or conducted any banking. On February 25, a group of friends and family found him dead in Vancouver's

Stanley Park Stanley Park is a public park in British Columbia, Canada that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The park borders the neighbourhoods of West End and ...

; he had apparently hanged himself.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koenig, Andrew 1968 births 2010 deaths 2010 suicides 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors 21st-century American comedians Activists from California American film editors American human rights activists American male child actors American male comedians American male film actors American male television actors American male voice actors American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American podcasters Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Comedians from California Film directors from California Formerly missing people Jewish American male actors Missing person cases in Canada North Hollywood High School alumni Suicides by hanging in Canada Suicides in British Columbia 21st-century American Jews